Their company, Global
Thermostat, has developed a technology Chichilnisky says
can suck carbon dioxide out of the air, store it up, and sell it
back to companies that need it.

Chichilnisky recently came by our offices
to show off the product.

The profit motive is just a necessary evil, she told us.

The real reason behind their carbon capture invention is tackling
climate change, since more carbon dioxide in the air increases
global warming.

"It's no
longer enough to reduce emissions," she said. "We've
procrastinated enough, and so to avoid the worst, catastrophic
risks, what we need is to take it down from air to close the
carbon cycle, which means whatever we put up, bring it
down. And that's what our technology does."

Of course, removing excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
would only get at part of the problem underlying climate change.
But Chichilnisky says the product could save large
carbon-emitting businesses from a lot of grief.

It works by coating cubes just slightly larger than your hand —
like the one at left — with a nitrogen-based compound developed
by Global Thermostat that absorbs carbon dioxide.

Stack a bunch of the cubes on top of one another, add some
exhaust pipes, and you get a full facility, like the one shown
above.

The plants are capable of processing 100,00 cubic feet of air
per minute. The end product is 97-percent-pure CO2.

Chichilnisky compares the technology to a dehumidifier.

"You plug it in, air circles inside dehumidifier, there's a
chemical that loves water, so water is captured," she said. "And
then the water, as it cools, condenses and falls down on tray,
then you change the tray.

"Now replace water molecules by CO2, and replace the chemical
that the loves water by a chemical that loves CO2, and that's
what it is."

The company's
first commercial partnership is with Algae Systems, a company
that's utilizing Global Thermostat's packaged CO2 to produce the
aforementioned jet fuel. A factory to do so is currently under
construction in Alabama.

Edgar Bronfman Jr., former Vivendi and Seagram CEO, is a minority
owner in Global Thermostat, and the firm has received a loan from
Goldman
Sachs.

The Alabama factory won't be finished before the end of the year.

But Chichilinksy says she's already received interest from
companies in India and Saudi Arabia for their own carbon
capturing facilities. The company made $1 million
last year.